A member of a local school board in Ohio faces charges after suffering an overdose from the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl while sitting in his car.
Police responded to a call in Akron about an unidentified man in a parking lot Thursday night. After arriving on scene first responders found the man slumped unconscious inside a veichle and immediately administered a dose of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, before rushing him to a local hospital, reports U.S. News and World Report.
Authorities identified the man as 57-year-old John Otterman, who is a board member of the Akron Public Schools system. Officer discovered a white powder, which later tested positive for fentanyl, and marijuana in his car. Otterman later admitted to police at the hospital that the drugs belonged to him.
He faces a misdemeanor drug abuse charge for the marijuana, but will not face a penalty for possessing fentanyl. Ohio’s Good Samaritan Law provides immunity for individuals who overdose up to two times.
Opioids are killing a record number of people in Ohio, which now has the second highest death rate from drug overdoses in the U.S. behind only West Virginia.
The state lost 4,329 residents to drug overdoses in 2016, a 24 percent increase over the previous year, fueled by the worsening opioid epidemic that is spreading death throughout the country. Nearly 40 per 100,000 people in the state now die from a drug-related overdoses in Ohio, due to the influx of synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its analogs, which are at least 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.
“We’ve got a big problem in Ohio,” Dublin Police Chief Heinz von Eckartsberg recently told The Columbus Dispatch. “Fentanyl is powerful and more intense. People are putting stuff in their veins that’s going to kill them.”
Officials say without the presence of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, commonly called Narcan, the number of opioid deaths would be much higher. First responders in Ohio administered roughly 43,000 doses of naloxone in 2016.
Nationally, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death for Americans under age 50, killing 63,600 people in 2016, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says the opioid epidemic will continue to deteriorate, predicting drug deaths will exceed 71,000 in 2017.
The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out the biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help us. Make a one-time donation to support the quality, independent journalism of TheDCNF. We’re not dependent on commercial or political support and we do not accept any government funding.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.